


Bad days

by ssrhpurgatory



Series: The Way They Lived (and related works) [7]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Illustrated, Mentions of Cancer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:29:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory
Summary: I drew an angsty image and then accidentally wrote some words to go with it about Rosemary going through chemo and Hilbert’s reaction, set in the Time Travelling Hilbert AU, and decided to put it here to trigger tag better.
Relationships: Alexander Hilbert/Original Female Character
Series: The Way They Lived (and related works) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983253
Kudos: 1





	Bad days

Alexander was enough of a physician to know that an adverse reaction to chemotherapy was only to be expected. But the days after each infusion—sometimes only one or two, sometimes as long as a week—were especially fraught.

It was difficult to watch Rosemary lethargic and in pain, even more so because she disliked showing it. She grew snappish with him and with Doug if they fussed too much over her, claiming that she would be just fine if they’d stop hovering and of course she couldn’t eat anything, would they go away?

But those days were not the ones that worried him the most. Worst were the days when she was too exhausted to complain at all, when his offers to hold her were met with quiet acquiescence, with her weight heavy against his chest as she shut her eyes and took what comfort she could from human contact. Those were the days when he could not stop his mind from spinning out one worst case scenario after another, a thousand different worlds in which she did not make it through this, in which he would have to continue without her once again.

He was afraid of what he might become this time. Losing her once had torn the last shreds of humanity from him, though it had taken him decades—and the intervention of Isabel Lovelace—to realize their loss. How much worse now, when she was not just his lab manager, not just his friend? What could he twist himself into if he no longer had a reason to care?

Of course that was all nonsense. Even if the worst happened, even if she died of this, there was still Doug, and parenting the boy would be more than enough incentive to keep him from traveling darker paths.

But some days, he wondered what would happen if he were ever alone again.


End file.
